Apun onleave(“depart”) andleave(“produce leaves”) (or its more common variant,leaf).
make likeatreeandleave (third-person singular simple presentmakes like a tree and leaves,present participlemaking like a tree and leaving,simple past and past participlemade like a tree and left)
- (idiomatic, humorous) Toleave,depart.
- Synonyms:make like a tree,make like a baby and head out,make like a banana and split,put an egg in one's shoe and beat it
2011, P. E. Van Schaick,Greasy Village, Lulu.com,→ISBN,page82:See ya' later Pete, I'mmaking like a tree and leaving.
2013, C. C. Elisan,Malware, Rootkits & Botnets (Beginner's Guide), McGraw Hill,→ISBN,page197:After all the needed malware files have been installed and all the necessary changes to the system have been made to facilitate malware persistency, the malware installermakes like a tree and leaves. Since the job of the malware installer is done, there is no more need for it to linger in the system.
2013 August 29, S. Moore,The Novel: An Alternative History, 1600-1800, Bloomsbury,→ISBN,page168:In Cocklecu, gender roles are reversed, to Klim's disgust. (The queen keeps a seraglio of 300 handsome men, and Klimmakes like a tree and leaves for fear of being added to them.)
